Page 20 - AdNews Magazine Jan-Feb 2021

2020: The year marketers
gained better control and ROI
from their digital outdoor
In the tech space, 2020 accelerated growth. Here’s VMO’s story.
2020 was a year that really challenged the outdoor indus- try. Brands had to rethink their outdoor spend. Outdoor media owners had to reshape their offering. Trust and transparency became critical.
At VMO, we took stock. We knew the best approach was cus- tomer centricity — putting the needs of marketers first. We wanted 2020 to be the year brands drove better return on their outdoor investment.
We identified three key areas that dramatically impact how marketers plan and invest in OOH:
1. Real-time data and insights are
critical to planning and proving
audiences.
2. Independently built and verified
measurement builds greater
trust and transparency.
3. Programmatic will drive the
future of outdoor.
While VMO continues to invest
heavily in a network of the highest quality screens in the best possible locations, it is these three lessons from 2020 that will underpin our focus on building the outdoor network of the future.
Real-time data and insights are critical in OOH planning.
COVID-19 changed the way we moved about our daily lives. In Q2, confidence in outdoor audiences
Paul Butler, Managing Director, Val Morgan Outdoor
was at an all-time low. However, brands were still looking to invest in out-of-home assets that reached Australians in their new daily mobility patterns.
To prove audiences were see- ing our screens, we relied heavily on our proprietary real-time audi- ence measurement platform, DART, to regularly report on weekly traffic across each vertical — these include VMO Shop, VMO Active and VMO On-the-Go.
With DART, we were able to compare data each week to a baseline reading and demon- strate what locations audiences were visiting. This level of granu- lar insight became even more crit- ical when Melbourne entered its 111-day lockdown. We saw an inf lux in audiences at essential service locations such as grocery, pharmacies, and petrol and convenience. In fact, petrol and convenience became the poster child for OOH activity in 2020.
DART is not new technology. We launched the platform in 2014, and since then have strengthened it. In 2015, it was independently checked by PwC. It is our commit- ment to delivering smarter, more accountable OOH with better returns for marketers.
In 2020, DART paved the way for VMO’s latest audience tool, DART R&F — our reach and
frequency (R&F) model. DART R&F is a transformational approach to outdoor measure- ment and to ensure maximum transparency. We worked with specialist consultancy D2D which independently built and verified the R&F tool.
Building greater trust and transparency — we have nothing to hide
It is in our DNA to build systems and processes for buying OOH that brands can have complete trust and confidence in.
Being independently built and verified, our tool has the data granularity to accurately predict audiences by hour, by location and by individual screen, and pro- vides a trusted source of measure- ment for programmatic cam- paigns, giving clients the confi- dence to invest in this space.
DART R&F utilises credible third-party data sources such as ABS, transactional data and loca- tion data sources. It is used to inform traditional OOH buying and, critically, powers program- matic trading.
This is one piece of the trust and transparency puzzle. The other is making inventory availa- ble for independent verification. We work with all the independent verification providers — we have nothing to hide. We see them as a